The present invention relates generally to the field of protective sports equipment and in particular to a new and useful improvement for chin straps and their attachment to football helmets.
Football is an extremely physical, high-contact sport. As a result, it is extremely important that players on the field be wearing protective helmets at all times during game play. Unfortunately, the same roughness that makes wearing a helmet so important can also cause players to lose their helmets in the melee on the field.
This problem is well-recognized and has not been solved by current helmet technology. For example, data collected during the 2011 National Collegiate Athletic Association (“NCAA”) collegiate football season indicated that helmets came off of players more than two times per game.
The problem of helmets coming off of football players has actually made new rules necessary. The NCAA and other associations with rule making authority concerning football have passed various rules that are effective for the 2012 season to enhance student-athlete safety. Among these new rules is a rule concerning “Loss of Helmet During Play” that states that if a player loses his helmet during play, other than as the result of a foul by an opponent, it will be treated like an injury so that the player must leave the game and is not allowed to participate for the next play. Additionally, if a player loses his helmet, he is not allowed to continue to participate in that play, to protect him from injury. Thus, besides being a threat to player safety, helmet loss can put teams at a temporary competitive disadvantage.
Chin straps are crucial for keeping helmets in place during game play. Players are generally expected to have their helmet chin straps snapped on when they are on the field, both to protect their chin and to hold the helmet on their head. When a strap loosens or pops off during a play it threatens the player and hurts their team. At the same time, players need to detach at least one side of the chin strap to remove their helmet, often several times a game, such as when their unit leaves the field when an offensive series begins or ends, or when a substitution is made. Thus, an ideal chin strap is strong enough to stay on during play, but also easy and fast to attach and detach throughout each game.
The concept of using double snaps on a chin strap is not known for football helmets, but is known in different applications, for example, as used in a China Shearling Trapper hat available from http://www.alibaba.com/product-free/101356865/China_Shearling_Trapper_Hat_with_a.html. This hat has two snaps on its securing strap but only one is used at a time because there is only one snap on an opposite side of the hat. The two snaps are thus used to provide two sizes for the strap and not to better secure the hat.
The concept of a broadly adjustable chin strap which uses velcro instead of snaps is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,946,735. Published patent application US2008/0028500 discloses the known use of a single snap buckle in combination with a screw-on male snap for a football helmet. Also see U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,356 and published patent application US2007/0193006.
Published patent application US2008/0092277 attempts to solve the helmet retention problem using a non-pivoting clamp for securing a chin strap to a helmet. The use of redundant pivoting snaps on a chin strap to engage redundant snap-receivers on a football helmet shell is not known, however.